National rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Co. has opened a second location in Northeast San Antonio.

The details: The business held its grand opening on Oct. 4, according to a social media post from Store Manager Sebastian Romero. The store along FM 78 joins the company's foothold in the area that includes a location on FM 1103 in Cibolo, as well as stores in New Braunfels and Seguin.

Tractor Supply Co. sells supplies for pets, trucks, other vehicles and home improvement. The FM 78 location also features a feed center, a pet wash center and a propane tank refill station.

• 8318 FM 78, Converse

Technos, Inc., a Schertz-based industrial fan manufacturer and repair service, celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2025, company staff told Community Impact.

The company is located at 7016 FM 3009 and was founded in 1980.

A closer look: Technos, Inc. specializes in industrial fans and ventilation systems. The company provides repairs and maintenance for businesses across the region, according to the company's website.

Service options include preventative maintenance and testing, along with shutdown services. The business also refurbishes older fan systems to be repurposed for future usage. There is also a 24-hour emergency on-call field response service for malfunctioning fans or ventilation systems, according to the company's website. 

• 7016 FM 3009, Schertz

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."

Since 1945, the Alamo Colleges District has provided post-secondary education opportunities in the San Antonio area. The district began with two campuses and, by the end of 2025, had five campuses educating more than 80,000 students each year.

Put into perspective: Chancellor Mike Flores said the district began with the union of San Antonio College and St. Phillips College, originally named the San Antonio Union Junior College District.

Over time, three additional campuses were developed, serving communities on the Northeast, Northwest and South sides of the San Antonio region, which includes Bexar County and seven surrounding counties.

Flores said the district's primary goal is to serve the community with education and resources at an approachable cost. Alamo Promise was launched in 2019 to help provide no-cost education to students in need. Academic programs have also expanded over the years, with the district now offering four bachelor's degree programs, including operations management, nursing, cybersecurity and cloud computing.

• 2222 North Alamo St., San Antonio

Texans began receiving full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits Nov. 14, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced. The renewed SNAP payments came after two weeks of delays due to the 43-day federal government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12.

The overview: SNAP is a federally funded program that provides low-income individuals and families with monthly stipends to spend on groceries. The food assistance program ran out of funding Nov. 1, one month after the government shut down amid disagreements over federal health insurance subsidies.

The details: Over 3.5 million Texans receive SNAP benefits each month, according to Feeding Texas, the statewide network of food banks. Payments are issued on a rolling basis throughout each month.

“For SNAP clients who receive benefits on or after the 14th of the month, full benefits will be issued on their normal issuance date,” the HHSC website states. “SNAP clients who already received partial benefits will receive the rest of their monthly amount on or after Nov. 14.”